Language learning: the shaky future of study (and work) abroad

By Anne Marie Graham. Unless the government develops a coherent languages strategy, student mobility is threatened, says Anne Marie Graham. Another year, another fall (5%) in the number of language A-levels taken. The UK curriculum's first choice foreign languages, French and German, have been declining in popularity for more than a decade. And although numbers studying other languages, including Spanish and Arabic, have increased, they're not enough to buck the overall downward trend. The new league table measure for 'traditional' subjects, the English Baccalaureate, led to a dramatic increase this year in students taking a language at GCSE, but the figure still only stands at 44% of GCSE students. How many of these are studying French or German because they want to, or because they've been encouraged to do so to improve their school league table position? And realistically, how many will go on to study languages at A-level? Read more...